


Much Ado About Deductions

by too_legit_to_knit



Category: Much Ado About Nothing - Shakespeare, SHAKESPEARE William - Works, Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Drama, Fluff, Gen, Much Ado About Nothing, References to Shakespeare, Teenagers, Theatre, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, bullys - Freeform, cuteness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-25
Updated: 2014-03-25
Packaged: 2018-01-16 22:47:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1364584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/too_legit_to_knit/pseuds/too_legit_to_knit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The teens John Watson and Sherlock Holmes go to a mandatory theater audition for school.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Much Ado About Deductions

**Author's Note:**

> This fanfic has a few archaic words in it, that is because this was originally homework for my literature class.

“But, I don’t want to go John!” Sherlock moaned as he joined his much shorter friend to Drama class.   
“It’s mandatory Sherlock. Any way, I think you’ll enjoy it. Mr. Lestrade retired and joined the force so there is a new Director,” John pointed out while dragging his friend toward the school theater. Before opening the door, John noticed Sherlock go into his taciturn shell. When they walked into the large, dark room the boys saw the rabble of students that crowded the front of the stage around a women they didn’t recognize. Immediately, Sherlock spun around on his boot heels, John without any hesitation blocked Sherlock with his arm.   
Sherlock tried to look pathetic “But John... people.”   
John gave Sherlock a look that said go or I will make you.  
“Fine.” Sherlock reverted to his normal self. “I will put you in a pillory!” Making one last futile attempt.  
“YOU DON’T HAVE A PILLORY SHERLOCK! NOW GO!” 

“All right everybody! Find a seat!’’ the woman yelled. Sherlock grudgingly found a seat with John in the back of the theater. Mumbling, Sherlock deduced, “Recently married, came back from the honeymoon a month ago, religious, not her first time teaching...”  
“Sherlock, be quite, she’s about to talk!”   
Sherlock crossed his arms over his chest and slumped in his seat, he was determined to have a bad time. “I am the venerable Mrs. McClain, your new director. This semester it is mandatory for everybody to audition. We will not be putting on Romeo and Juliet.” Most of the girls let out a collective sigh of disappointment. “Instead we will be performing Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Now, if you would choose a character to audition for, then gather backstage and wait for your name to be called.”   
The crowd of high schoolers migrated to the elevated stage pushing each other - trying to get a good character. Sherlock and John were the last to get scripts. Sherlock pick up a sheet that was labeled DON JOHN in bold lettering.   
“Protagonist, hmmm I’ll try this one. Really John? Claudio?” John rolled his eyes and started to walk with Sherlock backstage. “He’s a solider and I want to be a soldier too.” “You never told me that! And why would you ever want to be a soldier? That’s just silly!” “Don’t gibe-”   
“Ohhhh fancy word!” Sherlock mocked him sardonically.  
“You’re the one who wanted to be a pirate until you found out they don’t use cutlasses anymore.”   
“WHO TOLD YOU THAT? MYCROFT?!”   
Before John could defend himself Mrs. McClain called out “Holmes, Sherlock.” Sherlock gave John one last glare for good measure then quickly walked over to the stage and started to read the script. The drama teacher quickly interrupted him, “Mr. Holmes try this one.” She walked over to the edge of the stage and picked up one of the papers, once neatly piled, now lay helter-skelter about the stage and handed it to Sherlock.   
“But this is Benedick!”   
“Just read it.”   
Sherlock quickly skimmed through the monologue then started to read “I do much wonder that one man seeing how much another man is a fool when he dedicates his behaviors to love, will, after he hath laughed at such shallow follies in others-”   
“Thank you Mr. Holmes, that will be all.” Mrs.McClain scribbled something down in her notebook.  
“Hooper, Molly”   
Sherlock still dumfounded, saw a girl that was at least a foot shorter than he come out from behind the curtains.   
“Umm... I and going to read from-”   
Sherlock didn’t stay long enough to hear any more.   
“SHE DIDN’T EVEN LET ME FINISH!” Sherlock yelled at John when he was finally backstage.  
“Sherlock calm down! I thought that you didn’t want to do this in the first place!”   
“I didn’t but-”   
“Sherlock no ‘buts’, any way Mrs. McClain just called me, I’ll be right back.” Sherlock found a dark corner to sit in, and waited.  
John walked back to the corner where Sherlock was sitting. “I’m done.”  
“Took you long enough!”  
“I was only .....oh, nevermind!”  
They sat in silence until their drama teacher called for the class to sit back down in the theater. The boys found seats in the back of the audience . “Tomorrow, I will announce the parts. You are excused.” 

After school, Sherlock and John walked to John’s house to do homework. Once they entered John’s room, Sherlock immediately flopped onto the bed. John sat his back pack on the carpet next to his desk, unzipped it and took out his binder. Sherlock sat up, “You’re working on school work?”  
“Yes, Sherlock. That’s what high school students do! Here!” John gave Sherlock a piece of lined paper and a pencil. Sherlock ignored them and fell back onto the bed, rolled over and mumbled, “Boring!”

The next day at Drama class Mrs. McClain announced the parts for the play. After announcing the minor characters she stared to read aloud the major cast.   
“Don John will be played by Jim Moriarty. Margaret will be played by Sally Donovan. Hero will be played by Mary Morstan. Claudio will be played by John Watson. Beatrice will be played by Molly Hooper and last, but not least, Benedick will be played by Sherlock Holmes.”   
Sherlock went into utter shock. He, Sherlock Holmes would play a protagonist? Not just any protagonist but on that was romantically involved with MOLLY HOOPER!   
“Sherlock?”  
Sherlock barely noticed that John was shaking him.  
“Sherlock!”  
“OUCH! That hurt!” Sherlock rubbed the back of his head. John had slapped the back of his head to wake him out of his trance.  
“She said to go and get our scripts.” John started to walk down the center aisle, then turned around. “COME ON SHERLOCK!”  Sherlock got up out of the seat and followed John to the stage while rubbing his head.

“Look Sherlock, stop fretting about this! You’re going to be fine!”  
Sherlock slammed his locker closed. He was just about to tell John something when Sally Donovan, Phillip Anderson and their gang came up to Sherlock and took him by the shoulders to keep him from leaving.   
“Hey freak!”  
Sherlock glanced over to where John had once stood. Sally smiled.  
“Your friend’s not here. He’s in class and we just happened to have a free period. Then we saw you carousing about....”  
Sherlock retorted, “I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of the word ‘carousing’.”   
Anderson and Sally pushed his shoulders, slamming him against the lockers. “Don’t get smart with me!”  
The place where John hit him was now throbbing. Sherlock tried to calculate how many times they would have to hit him on the back of the head before he was rendered unconscious. While Anderson and Sally were busy taunting Sherlock, neither of them noticed a mouse-like figure come up behind them gathering up enough courage.  
“GET OFF OF HIM!”  
The group of teens turned their heads to look at who had enough guts to yell at them. With all eyes on her, Molly started to shrink back. She saw Sherlock, who was pretty battered, had a look of surprise. Molly could swear he had smiled a bit. She walked up to him. The bullies, still shocked, parted like the Red Sea for her. She pulled Sally and Anderson off of Sherlock.   
“Come on Sherlock! I’ll take you to the nurse’s office.”  
Sherlock limped over to the office with Molly. Once she safely got Sherlock to the nurses care she ran all the way down the hall until she found the right class room. Molly popped her head in the door, looking at the teacher and said, “I need John Watson.”  
The teacher nodded ‘yes’ in John’s direction and John left the classroom.   
“Molly, what’s wrong?”  
“It’s Sherlock. He go into a fight again.”  
“Where is he?”  
“Nurses office.”  
The pair ran down the hallway of lockers until they reached the nurses office.  
“I didn’t start it. OUCH!” The nurse, Mrs. Hudson, was cleaning a cut above his eyebrow, “Sorry Sherlock, dear.”  
Mrs. Hudson was Sherlock’s favorite member of staff at the school. That was probably because he spend more time in the office than in all of his classes, or that she was so motherly towards him.   
“Well my teacher is expecting me, I should go.”  
John gave Sherlock a look, when Molly wasn’t looking. Sherlock understood the prompt. “Thank you Molly.”  
“You’re welcome Sherlock.” And with that left for class.   
“You owe her big time.” John said.

John picked up a book from Sherlock’s shelf. “Salaam and other Middle Eastern Phrases, really?!”   
Sherlock was sitting on his bed memorizing his lines and John was looking at some of Sherlock’s books.   
“The Penury, Fealty, and Varlets of the Middle Ages, how and WHY would you ever need this Sherlock?”  
“John toss me my dictionary.”  
John found the dictionary under a stack of papers. “Here.” He tossed it next to Sherlock on the bed.   
“Juxtapose...J-U-X...” John couldn’t make out the rest. A little while later the doorbell rang. Sherlock jumped up and ran to the door.  
“We can practice in my room, this way.” A few seconds later Sherlock and Molly entered the room.   
“Hello Molly!”  
“Hello John. I came to practice with Sherlock.”  
Sherlock opened up the script. “Well then let’s start at Act 1, Scene 1, Line 91.”

Three months later it was production day. The whole school had signs and posters that had words like ‘Perchance’ and ‘Thither’. The students were all nerves but that was taken to a new level back stage. Although they had had a week of rehearsals nerves were still very high.   
It had taken Mrs. McClain weeks to get Molly into character, and once she finally got the hang of it she made a wonderful Beatrice. She especially loved her costume, it was a Regency era dress that flowed with every step she took, the dress had a fairly low neckline but was trimmed with lace so it felt higher than it was. It was lavender with a tinge of blue, Molly felt absolutely fantastic in it.  
The play went on without a hitch, Sherlock stayed in character and did’t criticize the other actors when they forgot their lines, and John was made to play Claudio. Afterward Mycroft gave his blithe dissent, Mr. and Mrs. Holmes gushed, and Mr. and Mrs. Watson were ecstatic. Over all it was a wonderful night.

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own any of these characters.


End file.
